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DIY Thanksgiving Gratitude Journal {and free printable}

These DIY Thanksgiving Gratitude Journals are a simple craft you can give to family and friends this holiday season. They also can be used as Thanksgiving place cards. This is sponsored content.

DIY Thanksgiving Gratitude Journal, love the idea of setting them out on the Thanksgiving dinner table (would also be great to use all year long)

Somehow I blinked, and now my kids are nearly grown. I don’t know how it happened. People always tell you that it “goes so fast,” but you don’t really get it until it happens to you. This year for Halloween, our kids totally ditched us to go trick or treat with their friends… my husband and I went out to dinner at a nearly empty restaurant! (We were totally pathetic if you ask me.) This getting older thing is not for the weak of heart.

This year has marked the first year that our oldest lives full-time out of state. Her room is now a “guest” room and hers when she visits. How did that happen? I mean, you send the kids off to college and assume they will be back for summers and holidays, and then they get jobs or take extra classes, and the next thing you know, you see them for a couple of weeks in the summer and winter.

thanksgiving-gratitude-journals-2

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I’ve been thinking about how much our family has changed in the last five years. It seems that we had YEARS with little kids and all of the struggles associated with small children (having twins will do that to you.)  

Going shopping alone seemed to be such a luxury at one time, and now it seems almost commonplace.

kids-thanksgiving

(Yep, those are JUST mashed potatoes on her plate.)

Setting Our Thanksgiving Table

I’ve now got a 20-year-old and two 14-year-olds, and with that growth comes the need to change and add to some of our family’s holiday celebrations and traditions.  The Thanksgiving table used to be all about crayons, toys, mac n’ cheese, and plastic cups, and now we don’t even have a kid’s table anymore (oh, but there is still mac n’ cheese, there will always be mac n’ cheese).

DIY Thanksgiving Gratitude Journal, love the idea of setting them out on the Thanksgiving dinner table (would also be great to use all year long)

This year for Thanksgiving (and all Holiday seasons), I’m going to try as much as I can to focus on gratitude.  So instead of complaining that my kids are growing up, I will be grateful that I have 3 healthy kids who are growing up to be wonderful human beings.

This is something that I want my kids to do, too. Social media makes their world so full of comparison that sometimes I wonder how they all cope with it.

Thoughts on Gratitude

You pretty much know what everyone is doing ALL THE TIME. Your friend had a party without you? It’s on Facebook.  Someone is mad at you? They tell everyone on Twitter.  It’s nuts. Don’t get me wrong, I love social media, I think it can be a tremendous force for good, but like anything, it can also be misused.

DIY Thanksgiving Gratitude Journal, love the idea of setting them out on the Thanksgiving dinner table (would also be great to use all year long)

All of that makes it so much more important to focus on what we have and to be grateful for all of our blessings.  Focusing on gratitude can change a bad day into a good one and turn what we have into “enough.”

As a part of this gratitude challenge, I’m asking myself and my kids to write down one thing every day that they are thankful for.  Just ONE thing. I’ve made myself a Gratitude Journal to go along with the challenge.

About the Gratitude Journals

DIY Thanksgiving Gratitude Journal, love the idea of setting them out on the Thanksgiving dinner table (would also be great to use all year long)

I’ve been fancying up simple composition notebooks for a few years now. It’s one of my favorite DIY tricks.  The notebooks are cheap, and with only a few craft supplies, you can make a great gift out of them.

DIY Thanksgiving Gratitude Journal, love the idea of setting them out on the Thanksgiving dinner table (would also be great to use all year long)

How to Make a Gratitude Journal

If you are hosting Thanksgiving this year, this would also be a fun DIY for your Thanksgiving table.  Set one at each person’s spot as a simple Thanksgiving gift to them. Want to make some? They are easy! You can make a bunch in a short amount of time.

DIY Thanksgiving Gratitude Journal, love the idea of setting them out on the Thanksgiving dinner table (would also be great to use all year long)

Journal Supplies

  • Small Composition Notebooks (mine are 5×7)
  • Decorative Paper
  • Glue Stick
  • X-Acto Knife and Cutting Mat
  • Gold Leather Cording
  • Printable “Today I am Grateful For” template that you can download for free; just hop on over to our PRINTABLE LIBRARY.

How to Get the Printables. You can get a copy of the printable featured in this post in our Printable Library. Access to the library is for our Newsletter subscribers, and subscriptions are FREE. Please follow the instructions to obtain the printable. PLEASE READ the instructions on that page. Note: Printables in the library may not be sold or used for commercial purposes.

How to cover a composition notebook

Step One: Cover the Notebook

Basically, you cover the entire front of the notebook (not the spine) with glue and then attach the decorative paper to the front.  Then trim the paper to size. There is a VERY detailed tutorial on how to do this on our Summer Journal Tutorial.

DIY Thanksgiving Gratitude Journal, love the idea of setting them out on the Thanksgiving dinner table (would also be great to use all year long)

Step Two: Attach the Gratitude Card

After you’ve covered the journal (front and back), simply glue the “Today” printable to the front. I added a bit of gold leather cording as a finishing touch. I actually ended up making quite a few of these and am going to pass them out to some friends this month (If you get one, act surprised.)

My oldest is coming home this weekend for a holiday, and I can’t wait. I hope that someday she (and my other kids) have warm memories of these events in their childhood and hope to share them with their kids when they are grown.

I know that our family will continue to change and grow (and hopefully add new members over the years), and I’m excited to see how our holidays and traditions will evolve over the years.

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90 Comments

  1. Melissa, holidays has been the biggest challenge for me adapting to having grown children. You are right on the number. It happened when our youngest was 14 and the others were grown. It seems for us that the traditions are revolving around food and I try and get them to participate as much as possible so we are doing it as a family. Now for all our holiday meals we have a salad bar and a dessert bar. It is so much fun and they love to participate. Everyone makes something. I know things will change when they get married and then there are grandchildren in the future. We just must keep being flexible. Semper Gumby!

  2. My kids are all still quite young, but as they grow, I see the importance of making our own traditions for our family and not just relying on the extended family to create them all for us. I also try and include my kids in more of the preparations and planning as they start to get older.

  3. As children, we always looked forward to opening our presents on Christmas eve – Santa was early i neck of the owwds. Now that my children have grown and have spouses of their own, we have moved our opeing time to Christmas morning floowed by a Christmas brunch to include Prime Rib. Wonderful memories both then, now, and in the future.

  4. As the kids in the family get older we have everyone help out in different ways with the Christmas lights and making Christmas cookies.

  5. As my kids grow, they are now helping with Santa and Elf on the Shelf for the youngest…it is fun to hear their memories about our traditions, and have them feel a part of something “grown up”!

  6. I have kids helping with baking and table setting to our holiday celebrations as they grew.
    tcarolinep at gmail dot com

  7. When my kids were younger, they only participate in simple activities, such as hanging ornaments on the tree and folding napkins. as they get older, they also help me out in the kitchen baking cookies and cooking simple dishes. I can’t wait for the day that they prepare the full holiday meal! 😀

    amy [at] utry [dot] it

  8. We do a lot of the same traditions no matter how old everyone gets…trimming the tree a certain way, baking cookies, going to the Nutcracker and a big dinner.

  9. As my daughter grows older she is helping me more in the kitchen and she is able to better understand the meaning of giving back. She is volunteering and donating now more during the holidays than when she was younger.

  10. I add quotes to the table and give printables to my children with thoughts on how to be better, grateful and give back more. Every year they look on the table to see what inspiration I have found. Just a small tradition….oh and don’t ever change the menu!

  11. As my children grew older, they wanted to help more and more with decorating and having their say. They helped with wrapping of gifts and, of course, the baking of cookies, and couldn’t wait to deliver them to our neighbors.

  12. As they get older I include them in helping out with baking, cooking, and making decorations.

    Thanks for the giveaway 🙂

  13. As the kids got older, they help me with the meal preparation much more. Gifts have also gone from quantity to quality! Little kids like lots of stuff; older kids want one or two quality items, so shopping for Christmas gifts has changed a lot.
    Digicats {at} Sbcglobal {dot} Net

  14. I do not have ‘older’ kids but as they age, I plan to get them more and more involved in the process with cooking, baking, decorating…even buying and share more and more traditions and the meanings behind them.

  15. My oldest child is only six but very opinionated so we have started to include his ideas into the event. For example, he loves turkeys and has asked instead to have a vegetarian option this year. He has also asked to change our routine for when we put up the tree 🙂

  16. My kids are only 2 so we haven’t updated anything as of yet. I do plan on updating my open one present early tradition but they are getting christmas pj’s and I might even do elf on a shelf with them.

  17. When my kids became adults, we eliminated gift giving except for the kids in the family. It was a relief and eased stress for everyone.

  18. I will ask my son to share what he is grateful for when he gets older.

    Thanks for the chance to win!

    wildorchid985 AT gmail DOT com

  19. My kids enjoy decorating with lights and the tree, now that they are older. It makes it easier on me to focus on baking or other things when they want to help out.

  20. I am still having to take the changes I mean they do not want to go with us to get the tree now that they are grown and they do not want to decorate because they are doing there own so now my husband and I are just taking our time and doing it our way!

  21. My husband was military so every holiday was an adjustment depending on whether he had to work or if he was even in the area. We had many holidays when he was away and had to make up for it when he returned. My children are adults now so traditions are evolving that center around the new family members.

  22. Wehave tried to allow them to have input into the holidays. They went from making gifts for all siblings to drawing names. Little things like that.

  23. When my boys got older we didn’t change very much. They enjoyed the way we always had done Christmas. The biggest change was not having to get up before dawn to see what Santa brought.

  24. Now my sons are 6 and 8. When I was growing up we celebrated by leaving out shoes and got coal if bad or treats if good. We don;t do that with out kids or they would get lots of coal! lOL

  25. When my kids got older, I noticed that we actually started eating breakfast before tearing into the gifts on Christmas morning!
    westiemks5 at yahoo dot com

  26. #SweepstakesEntry – comment

    the biggest change to our holiday tradition is that we all now meet at my brother Mike’s house for exchanging presents, buffet dinner because of the growing family- Mom’s house is just too small lol

    Kathryn C

  27. We don’t have any children but we have watched our nieces and nephews grow from children into adults with children of their own. It has been fun to watch how they grow and that shift from believing in Santa to sharing that tradition with their own kids.

  28. No kids. I’m spending Christmas with close friends who I’ve been sharing Christmas with for 25 years.
    Thanks for the contest.

  29. When the kids got older they helped with the planning and cooking for the holidays.
    It was a fun time!
    thank you

  30. We actually haven’t changed much as my oldest moved into her 20s. One thing I do for her every year, since she has enough “stuff”, is to buy her some stock in a Company that has some importance in her life at the moment.

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